In race after race during last Thursday night’s Section III Class AA championships at SRC Arena, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field team went to the front of the field, usually in multiples.
By doing so, and also gathering points at opportune moments in other events, the Hornets were able to pick up 141 points, enough to hold off Baldwinsville (104 points) and earn a sectional title to go with the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division title it won a week earlier.
F-M swept the top three spots in the first race of the night, the 3,000-meter run. Sophie Ryan , in 10 minutes, 34.63 seconds, edged Claire Walters (10:34.86) as Rebecca Walters finished third in 10:37.95.
Ryan would also compete in the 1,000-meter run, where in 2:59.50 she was just behind Phoebe White, who won in 2:58.96. But in the 600-meter run, it was Ryan prevailing in 1:38.97 and White second in 1:39.43, while Palmer Madsen got fourth place in 1:42.62.
Also prevailing in two relays, F-M had Madsen, Susan Bansbach, Fiona Mejico and Samantha Pynn go 4:09.64 to hold off West Genesee (4:12.30) and win the 4×400 as, in the 4×800, Bansbach, Claire Walters, Rebecca Walters and Alex Villalba prevailed in 9:52.33, more than 15 seconds ahead of the field.
Even when F-M didn’t win a race, it got 18 points from the 1,500-meter run as Claire Walters, in 4:53.35, trailed Cicero-North Syracuse’s Mia Pestle (4:47.32) as Rebecca Walters was third in 4:56.18 and Villalba was fourth in 5:00.06.
Gwenn Shepardson went 9.04 seconds for second place in the 55-meter hurdles behind B’ville’s Adrianna Straughter (8.77). And in the 300-meter dash, Cady Barns edged out White for second place, 43.287 seconds to White’s 43.289.
Shepardson, Madsen, Pynn and Mejico were fourth in the 4×200 relay in 1:52.95.Barns had a third-place triple jump of 35’7” and took fourth place in the long jump, going 16’2” as Isabella Zuber (16’ ½”) was sixth here and ninth in the triple jump. Sarah Vaccaro was eighth in the shot put with a toss of 28’7”.
Meanwhile, the F-M boys indoor track team had just 31 points and settled for fifth place in its sectional AA meet as Baldwinsville, with 158 points, easily claimed the top spot.
Still, the Hornets’ Garrett Brennan was victorious in the 3,200-meter run, his time of 9:43.73 the only one under 10 minutes as B’ville’s Ben Timmons was second in 10:00.89. Then Brennan, paired with Nolan Chiles, Jack Duncanson and Geoff Howles, won the 4×800 in 8:23.26 to Liverpool’s second-place 8:26.98.
Matt Tripp needed 4:42.68 to get fifth place in the mile, while Nolan Chiles was sixth in the 1,000 in 2:42.46. Armando Adiran was fifth in the 300 in 38.96 seconds. Ryan Serp finished ninth in the 55 hurdles in 8.91 seconds as Adrian, Kobe Oley, Jack Shanley and John Nethercott were eighth (1:41.52) in the 4×200.
